Recon Mission

Yesterday I played golf again, the first 6 holes in dense fog, the rest in brilliant sunshine. This time I played with two other guys, Al and Chris. I met Al the first time I played and he gave me his number and told me he had a standing tee-time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30, and if I wanted to join him to call…so I did. Oddly enough, Al is from Fairfax, a retired educator. The third guy in our group, Chris, was a guy that Al met on the golf course five years ago just like me, and they have been playing in Maine ever since. Chris is from Long Island. Now I have both of their numbers and we have a group chat set up. Chris’ vacation has been cut short because his daughter has cancer and he needs to be with her at an upcoming doctor’s appointment. I found this out on the 18th green. I’m honestly glad I didn’t find out about it earlier because I would have been thinking about it non-stop. I can’t imagine what I would do if one of my children had cancer. I think of friends I know who have dealt with the death of their kids and I can’t even fathom the pain and sorrow of such a thing. So I’ll be praying for my new friend and his daughter this week.

I actually hit the ball great yesterday. My short game is horrible, and I had a well-deserved 7 and an even more well-deserved 8, but I ended up shooting an 89, three shots better than last week. 

So, when I got back to Camp I walked down to the dock where I was greeted by Lucy, who had obviously been for a swim. But then I saw Pam..who had also been for a swim—something that never happens before 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Then she said, “Guess who fell off her paddleboard?”

A word of context…

I bought my wife a paddleboard for her birthday several years ago and she has put hundreds of miles on that thing every year on the lakes of Maine. She is a phenom on the thing. The only time she has ever fallen was one time when she was showing off doing Yoga moves on it! She told me this story. There’s a submerged fallen tree just on the other side of the point of this cove. I know it well since I have caught several fish there. It’s a long tree and in places it’s barely submerged at all. So Pam was out with Lucy and started going over the top of the fallen tree when she glanced down and thought, “whoa, that’s not very far under the water!” She braced herself for a jolt, but she cleared it without any scraping noises. Just about the time she relaxed, the fin on the back of the paddleboard struck the tree, sending Pam flying into the lake. Lucy immediately came close to get a close look at the mayhem. Pam was able to save her very badass hat but unfortunately her expensive subscription sunglasses are now amongst the sticks, clamshells other detritus that lies at the bottom of the lake. My job this morning is to do a recon mission at the site to see if I can locate the sunglasses. Lucky for us, the lake water here is as clear as glass. If its down there I will find it. Then, I will be her hero. Swimming up here in the morning is—how should I say this?—invigorating.